Matthias Schmidt (born 1952) is a German historian and author who first revealed in a university dissertation and then in the book, Albert Speer: The End of a Myth, the role that Albert Speer had played in the Holocaust.
[1][2] Schmidt earned his doctorate at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute for Historical Research at the Free University of Berlin.
Turner wrote "By demolishing Speer's carefully tailored image of himself, Matthias Schmidt has contributed to setting the record straight" and "Through some resourceful research, he has compiled an impressive catalogue of discrepancies between Speer's postwar versions of his career and the documented record, which Mr. Schmidt has augmented with some hitherto unused materials".
[1] A review in Kirkus said "from records in the possession of Speer's closest associate, and other researches, German historian Schmidt (Free Univ.
of Berlin) sets forth Speer's verifiable role in the Nazi hierarchy and his literary strategems to conceal it.